Dweezil Zappa marks the 50th anniversary of his father’s debut while feuding with his brother

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Dweezil Zappa is shown performing with his band Zappa Plays Zappa in Anaheim (File photo by Philip Cosores, contributing photographer)

Dweezil Zappa had toured as Zappa Plays Zappa – performing the music of his late father Frank Zappa – for a decade before a dispute with the Zappa Family Trust managed by his brother Ahmet led to a family feud over money and legacy. (Courtesy of Dweezil Zappa)

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Dweezil Zappa grew up the most musical of his late father Frank Zappa's four kids, and as such has carried on his legacy for a decade or more playing concerts of the elder Zappa's music to keep it alive and present on stage. (Photo courtesy of Dweezil Zappa)

Dweezil Zappa comes to the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. (Photo by Jeff Dean)

Dweezil Zappa has performed the music of his father, Frank Zappa, for more than a decade under the name Zappa Plays Zappa, is unable to use that name because of a dispute with his brother Ahmet, who now controls the family’s estate.

Frank Zappa is shown in 1972. (File photo by the Associated Press)

Frank Zappa poses for a photo in 1968. (File photo by the Associated Press

American avant-garde rock guitarist and composer Frank Zappa is pictured with his wife, Gail, in 1972. (File photo by the Associated Press

Musician and composer Frank Zappa, right, is shown in 1969. (File photo by the Associated Press)

Ahmet, Gail and Dweezil Zappa, left to right, the two sons and the widow of rock singer Frank Zappa, pose prior to a press conference in 2005 to announce a European tour of Zappa Plays Zappa. After Gail Zappa died last year, Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa have become embroiled in a dispute over use of the name Zappa Plays Zappa, merchandise revenue and other issues. (File photo by Franka Bruns, Associated Press)

For a decade, musician Dweezil Zappa toured steadily under the banner of Zappa Plays Zappa, the son playing the songs of his father so that the creatively eclectic music of the late Frank Zappa might live on.

Now, though, as Zappa kicks off his fall schedule with a pair of Southern California shows this week, the tour carries a new and sharply pointed name – take a deep breath before you try this – 50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the (Bleep) He Wants – The Cease and Desist Tour.

Is there a story behind that? Why yes, yes there is, one involving family and money, legacy and pride.

We’ll get to that unhappy family feud in a moment, but first let’s also note that this year offers plenty of reasons to shine the spotlight on Frank Zappa again. A new documentary, “Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words” debuted to strong reviews. A series of album reissues is underway.

And then it’s also the 50th anniversary of “Freak Out!” the recording debut album of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and the double album that provides a good part of Dweezil Zappa’s set list this year.

“We’re not playing the whole record,” Dweezil Zappa says, happy for the moment to talk songs and musicians before the inevitable shift to lawyers and dirty laundry. “But some deep cuts and some stuff that Frank didn’t play live, at least not like on the record.”

Frank Zappa, who died in 1993, was often ahead of the curve in the studio and onstage. Sometimes that came through in his lyrics: The Watts Riots-inspired number “Trouble Every Day” is still as relevant in its commentary on racism, media and politics and social injustice as it was when “Freak Out!” arrived at the end of June 1966.

Other times it’s reflected in the sonics he managed to coax out of the analog instruments and gear of the mid-’60s.

“Frank was using the studio as an instrument,” Dweezil Zappa says. “So trying to capture the spirit and energy of that is one of the things that is a challenge in terms of trying to re-create and perform.”

“It Can’t Happen Here,” for instance: “There’s a ridiculous and hilarious thing on the record that’s all vocal overdubs,” he says of that track. “I’m sure when that came out, people were like, ‘What the heck is this?!’”

Frank Zappa never tried to play that song live as it is on “Freak Out!” but Dweezil Zappa says he and the band do their best to capture the lunacy of the studio concoction – and concertgoers are still stunned when they hear it.

“If they haven’t heard it before they kind of look at you like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” he says. “There’s other things on the record that have that same kind of experience.

“If you put it in the perspective of other music that was coming out in 1966, this must have terrified parents when their kids brought it home,” Dweezil Zappa says. “It’s kind of like bringing home a wild animal and saying, ‘Can I keep it?’ That’s kind of the spirit of the record.”

A few years after the death of his father, Dweezil Zappa, now 47, took on the role of keeping his music alive. Outside of a few novelty numbers such as “Valley Girl,” a duet with daughter Moon Unit Zappa, and “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” Frank Zappa never got much mainstream radio airplay, so his son worried that many people didn’t really know the richness and breadth of his work.

“The impetus for me to play his music was to re-educate the fans,” Dweezil Zappa says. “Not the fans who already knew, but fans who if you said the name Frank Zappa would say, ‘Who?’ They might know the wacky songs or that his kids had funny names, but that’s about all.”

This year, unfortunately, the casual fans might also know the Zappa name for the public battling between Dweezil and his brother, Ahmet Zappa, over control of their father’s legacy. When their mother, Gail Zappa, died a year ago, she left the Zappa Family Trust that she had managed for more than two decades in the control of Diva and Ahmet, the two youngest Zappa kids, with Dweezil and Moon holding minority positions.

Gail Zappa had trademarked the name Zappa Plays Zappa as well as Frank Zappa’s image, and while the trust was supposed to get a portion of the money from merchandise sales on the Zappa Plays Zappa tours, Dweezil Zappa says she had not paid him any of his share for years.

This spring Ahmet Zappa and the trust told Dweezil Zappa he’d have to pay a fee to continue using the name, sparking a battle of open letters and blog posts that dragged the whole mess into the open.

“Now the trust owns that name and they’re saying, ‘Well, we own that name, you can’t play under that name unless you let us keep all the merch money, and you only have to pay a dollar (to license the music),’ but that’s not really a good deal,” Dweezil Zappa says.

“They’re not recognizing the fact that I’ve already been doing this for 10 years,” he says. “I offered to sell Zappa Plays Zappa merch on tour and split it 50-50 and they said, ‘Nope, we want it all.’”

Thus the long, attention-getting name of the new tour was born, Dweezil Zappa says.

“It’s the equivalent of making lemonade out of the lemons being thrown at me.”

Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County Register. He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.